“No Booster can push us out of the epidemic”. Word of WHO

SAGE, the WHO advisory group on COVID Immunization Strategies, released a report Thursday expressing concern that programs such as Biden's, which includes more vaccine purchases and vaccination centers to improve "access" while doses do not. used they rot on the shelves in the United States, they risk worsening the global COVID situation because they worsen the vaccination "inequality".

In particular, SAGE expressed concern that “ broad-based booster doses risks exacerbating vaccine access ” by diverting supply from under-vaccinated countries to those with already high percentages of vaccinated people.

And it's not just WHO advisers who are worried that booster programs will get out of hand (as Israel prepares to begin distributing its second round of doses). Ultimately, these programs like the US and Israel can do more harm than good, as WHO chief Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Dr. Tedros said that with 20% of vaccine supplies destined for boosters, " generic booster programs are likely to prolong the pandemic rather than end it ." By diverting the supply of vaccines to countries with high levels of immunity, vaccine manufacturers and those who buy boosters from them give the virus " more opportunities to spread and mutate ." "No country can get out of the pandemic,"

Of course, the United States is far from alone in having a booster program, even though it remains among the most vaccinated countries in the world. According to the SAGE report, at least 126 countries have already issued guidelines on additional boosters or vaccinations, and more than 120 have started bolstering their populations.

However, “ most of these countries are classified as high-income or upper-middle-income. No low-income country has yet introduced a booster vaccination program , ”the report said.

The WHO goal is for all 194 Member States to have at least 40% of their population vaccinated by the end of 2021, with 70% vaccinated by mid-2022. Only half of all Member States have reached the 40%. The policy of the WHO therefore sees in the push towards these early boosters only one example of the selfishness, among other things useless, of some states.

---

---

The article “No Booster can push us out of the epidemic”. Word of WHO comes from ScenariEconomici.it .

---

This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/nessun-booster-puo-spingerci-fuori-dallepidemia-parola-di-oms/ on Fri, 24 Dec 2021 12:00:52 +0000.